Happy April!?

by Sarah Marshank

About the fool…

April fools day is speculated to be linked to folks’ confusion around the vernal equinox. For ages, many peoples began the new year in the spring — aligned with nature’s renewal (duh!). Then in 45 BC, the Julian calendar changed it to January — just cuz Julius Caesar felt like it.

In 1582 when the Gregorian calendar adopted the January date, some of the old-timers would still acknowledge the new year in the spring and were taunted as fools. This trend caught on.

But the fool is way deeper than April.

In many traditions, the fool is recognized as the wisdom keeper. Whether in the form of the coyote prankster in indigenous tales, the crazy wisdom teachers from Asian lore, or the famed jester in the court of the king, the fools were usually not so foolish.

And then there’s the fool card in the tarot deck, where a lad appears to be stepping off a cliff yet does not seem troubled.

What can we learn from the fool right now?

Here’s my stab…

These corona-times are radically unstable and the wise man relaxes into this. He does not strive to predict what is to come or how it will be. He essentially plays dumb while idiots claim knowledge or control.

Though the idiots call him simpleminded, the fool is willing to step off the cliff with wonder.

His acceptance is born of the following.

He knows…

There’s no turning back.

It’s not a mistake that the cliff has appeared.

He has everything he needs.

You see…

Anyone who knows they don’t know is perfectly poised to be present for what’s actually here.

Admitting to not-knowing becomes an act of courage which then allows gems way more valuable than knowledge to arise from within.

Awe.

Clarity.

Love.

To name a few.

Knowledge

We tend to believe knowledge is what we need in a crisis but the truth is knowledge comes on the other side of the crisis — if at all. It is not what gets us through.

Over these past few weeks, I’ve been experiencing a free-fall happening inside me. As I surrender, I’m finally finding some gems — even as waves of fear and discomfort continue to course through my body, mind, and heart.

I’m letting go of what I thought I knew.

About humanity.

About uncertainty.

About truth.

Because none of what I thought I knew is helpful now.

Instead, I’m leaning into wondering again.

Though I’m curious who I will be a year from now, I’m not longing to rush through this time.

I am here.

Comfortably uncomfortable.

Letting go.

Maybe I’m just being foolish.

I sincerely hope so.